Cera took a hesitant step forward. First one and then another. And as she reluctantly walked out of the suite with Dr. Randall’s gun pressed painfully against her ribs, she discretely gave the security camera pointing directly at their suite a pleading glance.
Only, in her mind, she wasn’t looking into the camera. She was staring into Ivan’s toe-curling gaze.
And before she was forced to step out of view, Cera looked straight at the darkened lens and mouthed the wordsI love you.
14
Forty-five minutes later…
“What the fuckdo you mean, you lost them?” Ivan growled into his Bluetooth earpiece so he could keep his hands on the wheel of his rental.
“The cameras lost power due to the force of the storm,” Declan spoke to him from the department SUV Dec and Thorne had taken off in when they’d received Ivan’s panicked call. “But calm your shit and listen to what I’ve got. Now I was able to track the dummy floral delivery van for a bit after it left The Douglas. We got it all the way up Two-Eighty-Five but lost them just past Twin Forks Tavern.”
“That’s great, but—”
“I’m not finished. My team’s been making every call we can think of. So has Noah’s. I think we finally may have gotten a hit.”
“What?” Ivan’s worried heart swelled with the hope he’d so desperately been searching for. “Why the fuck didn’t you lead with that shit? Do you know where she is?” He pressed the gas pedal down even further. “I’m on Two-Eighty-Five, now. Give me an address, and—”
“If you’d shut up for two seconds, I’d be able to tell you.” The other man waited a beat and then, “Look, I get where you’re coming from, okay, but you’ve got to take a breath and chill the fuck out.”
“Fuck you, you get it,” Ivan spat back. “No one does.” Theydidn’t.
Except…
“Really, Petrov?” Grady Thorne’s voice came through the tiny speaker in Ivan’s ear. “You don’t think my partner understands what you’re going through? Dec knows exactly what you’re feeling. So do I, for that matter. We know because we’ve been there. Hell, you were around when all that shit went down with both our women. So don’t you dare sit there and try to tell either one of us we don’t understand.”
They know, dickhead. They fucking know.
Yeah, they did. And he was being a grade-A jerk to them both.
“Sorry,” he offered them both a sincere apology. “I’m just…”
“We know,” Declan assured him. “Trust me, we get it.”
Truth be told, Ivan was more pissed at himself than anyone else. He couldn’t believe this was happening. Couldn’t believe he’d fucked up so goddamn bad.
And now Cera would be the one to pay the price for his mistake.
“Fuck!” His fist struck the steering wheel with such force, he was surprised it didn’t break.
His wipers were on full blast to keep the blowing snow clear from his vision.
“Easy, man. Listen, I just sent you the address of the Whistling Pines Inn. Manager there said a man matching Dr. Timothy Randall’s description had been staying in one of their rooms for the past three months. Wanna know the weirdest part?”
“No, I want to find Cera.” That was theonlything Ivan wanted.
“Understood, but this little nugget puts a giant-sized nail in the bastard’s coffin,” Declan offered. “So get this. Tim Randall did an unauthorized DIY remodel of his hotel room. The sick bastard changed the back wall of his room to look just like the one behind his desk at his practice in Oklahoma City. Manager said he went in there to check on a vent connected to one he’d been having trouble with. He knocked, and when Randall didn’t answer, he used his manager’s key to make legal entry into the room.”
“Why the hell would he—” Before he could finish, Ivan had already answered his own question.Son of a…“The smart bastard did it in case anyone video called him. That way, whoever was on the other end of the call would think he was in his actual office in Oklahoma.”
Grady confirmed Ivan’s suspicions. “The asshole’s personal assistant was in on it, too. Poor woman folded like a deck of cards two minutes into a phone conversation with our sergeant. Admitted to sleeping with the good doctor, too, by the way.”
“Jesus.” Ivan took a hand from the wheel long enough to run it over his clenched jaw.
The plan was smart. Damn smart. An almost foolproof alibi for anyone who decided to go poking around.
Almost.